Notes, Monologues, and Miscellaneous Whimsies

For nearly six years now, I have smoked a pipe. It began as a joke--a gift from my ironic younger sister on the first Christmas after I became an assistant professor--but it has grown into a regular part of my lifestyle. People call me pretentious, some folks stare, so out of date is the pipe as a means of tobacco transference. Sue me. As this ongoing gallery will show, I'm at least in interesting historical company.

Robert Oppenheimer

(Because how else was Doctor Atomic supposed to unwind as he was leading humanity toward its own potential destruction?)

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About Me

MICHAEL BORSHUK is Associate Professor of African American Literature at Texas Tech University. He is the author of SWINGING THE VERNACULAR: JAZZ AND AFRICAN AMERICAN MODERNIST LITERATURE (Routledge, 2006), and numerous essays, reviews, and encyclopedia entries on African American literature, American modernism, and music. For ten years, from 1999 to 2009, he wrote on jazz regularly for CODA MAGAZINE. His fiction has appeared in ANTIGONISH REVIEW, DALHOUSIE REVIEW, ELYSIAN FIELDS QUARTERLY, SHORT STORY, and 34TH PARALLEL.